No war game in my hard drive is out of reach for some degree of experimentation about real warfare. Some war games just fit better than others.
When it comes to land maneuver warfare, a few of these war games fit like a glove.
Flashpoint Campaigns Red Storm,
Scourge of War and all the games made by Panther Games are outstanding examples.
The vision and theories about land maneuver warfare compiled in Robert Leonhard's
Fighting by Minutes are one of the most profound and exciting products of recent military thought. According to Leonhard, time is the primary dimension of warfare and the dynamics of the battlefield can be viewed and better appreciated under the lens of time.
Following such a bold premise, it is not surprising that Leonhard describes the existence of a "time flank" in addition to the two dimensional ones which are very familiar to everybody (i.e. left or right flank). In his own words (page 6):
An Army's lines extend only so far to the right and left. It has a certain finite depth as well. But an Army also has temporal limits that define its influence: an army is not always strong. There is a period of time before the army is ready to fight, and there is a period of time after it is no longer ready to fight. These boundaries in time represent the army's "time flank". The commander who learns to "turn the time flank", so to speak, will consistently overturn enemy defenses.
To learn and practice the concept of "turning the time flank" I went to this great old historical scenario in
Conquest of the Aegean (CotA from here). The scenario is named "First Clean Break" and when played from the Allied side presents the player with a though delaying action. A brigade-sized force of British and Australian infantry and armor must delay a German panzer division. The scenario starts on 13Apr1941 at 0600 and ends on D+3 at 2300.
A bit on purpose, I chose an scenario where spatial flanking options are limited. As shown in the screenshot above, the area of operations is narrow and deep. The green (Australian) and brown (British) icons show the start position of my forces. My forces are dangerously forward and I would have preferred a bit more depth for this delay action.